Asian shares and U.S. futures retreated on Thursday as oil prices jumped more than 2% following a report by Iran's state television that seven oil tankers caught fire and were damaged in the Strait of Hormuz.
If the report is verified, it would be the largest number of vessels damaged in the waterway in a single day since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28.
Brent crude, the international standard, gained 2.1% to $111.11 per barrel. It has been bouncing
between $97 and $112 in recent days on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global energy industry to return to normal.
U.S. benchmark crude rose 2% to $99.05 per barrel.
In share trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 2.7% to 62,907.84 on heavy selling of big tech companies like SoftBank Group, which lost 6.9%.
Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron fell 7% and testing equipment maker Advantest lost 6%.
In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 3.5%, to 5,533.77. Big memory chipmakers led the decline, with Samsung Electronics down 4%. SK Hynix lost 5.5%.
AI stocks, at the center of market action in recent months, are under pressure from worries that construction of data centers may slow as it is becoming increasingly expensive to borrow money.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 3.2% to 22,904.62, and the Shanghai Composite index gave up 1.5% to 3,658.03.
Taiwan's Taiex lost 1.8%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.4% to 8,793.20.
The U.S. stock market rose Wednesday following strong profit reports from SpaceX, Capital One Financial and other big companies.
The S&P 500 added 0.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7%. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.1%.
SpaceX helped lead the market and climbed 7.8% after reporting a stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected. Elon Musk, who runs the company that makes money from artificial-intelligence technology, rockets and other businesses, also said that SpaceX took a step to consider a possible merger with Tesla, his electric-vehicle company.
Tesla rose 3.4% and was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.
Other stocks rallying on profit reports that topped analysts’ expectations included Capital One Financial, which rose 2.5%, and Winnebago Industries, which climbed 10.7%.
Expectations are high for profit growth for all kinds of companies during the summer, and they need to meet them to justify the big runs their stock prices have made despite worries about high inflation, higher interest rates and other challenges weighing on Wall Street.
Netflix fell 5.3% even though the streaming service reported a stronger profit than analysts expected. Investors focused instead on worries that Netflix’s momentum may be slowing.
In other dealings early Thursday, the dollar fell to 157.01 Japanese yen from 158.14 yen late Wednesday. The euro rose to $1.1247 from $1.1233.
